The present invention relates to an ear type thermometer for women, which utilizes infrared rays radiated from an eardrum to measure body temperatures, thereby enhancing the measurement accuracy of the ear type thermometer for women.
An ear type thermometer, whereby infrared rays radiated from an eardrum are detected and a non-contact measurement of the eardrum temperature is carried out, is generally like what is described in the Japanese Patent Unexamined Application No. S 60-6835.
The ear type thermometer of above is structured as FIG. 60 shows and operates as follows:
First, the infrared rays radiated from an eardrum 200, the temperature of which is to be measured, are incident intermittently on a pyroelectric infrared sensor 202 as a chopper 201 interrupts the infrared rays, thereby converting the infrared rays to an electrical signal that varies in output with the same frequency as the operating frequency of the chopper 201. Next, after amplification in an amplifier circuit 203 and rectification in a synchronous detector circuit 204, the electrical signal is changed to a DC via a filter circuit 205 formed of low-pass filters. The value gained as an output signal from the filter circuit 205 represents a measurement value of the infrared rays corresponding to the temperature of the eardrum 200. On the other hand, the temperature of the chopper 201 is measured in advance by using a sensor temperature measuring means 206 formed of a thermister. The temperature of the chopper 201 thus obtained is used as a temperature compensating signal when the temperature of the eardrum 200 is derived by calculation from the output signal of the filter circuit 205.
Finally, a body temperature calculating means 207 reads the temperature of the chopper 201 and also the measured value of infrared rays obtained as an output signal of the filter circuit 205, thereby deriving by calculation the temperature of the eardrum 200 from the readout. The foregoing calculation to derive the temperature of the eardrum 200 is based on an assumption that the value obtained as an output signal form the filter circuit 205, i.e., a value tantamount to the output of the pyroelectric infrared sensor is proportionate to the difference between the fourth, power of the absolute temperature of the eardrum 200 and the fourth power of the absolute temperature of the chopper 201. However, when the ambient temperature range and also the measurement temperature range, in which an ear type thermometer is used, is narrow, almost the same result can be obtained in calculating the temperature of the eardrum 200 by assuming that the amplitude of the output signal from the pyroelectric sensor 202 is proportionate to the difference between the absolute temperature of the eardrum 200 and the absolute temperature of the chopper 201.
In addition, the magnitude of an error included in the temperature of the eardrum thus derived by calculation has not been allowed to be designated by the user as a permissible error but has been determined in advance as one of the specification items of an ear type thermometer itself.
Furthermore, an eardrum is located toward the back of an external auditory miatus and it is known that the temperature of the external auditory miatus is lower than the temperature of the eardrum by 0.5xc2x0 C. to 1xc2x0 C. Consequently, it is difficult to obtain a consistent measurement result at the time of measuring body temperatures unless only the infrared rays radiated from an eardrum are accurately measured, eliminating the effects of the infrared rays radiated from other areas of the external auditory miatus than the area where the eardrum is located.
In order to deal with the problems as described above, a proposal is made on a technology whereby temperatures are measured at a plurality of points on the surface in an ear hole formed of an external auditory miatus and the eardrum and the highest value in the temperatures measured is considered as the temperature of the eardrum. (Refer to the Japanese Patent Unexamined Application No. H6-285028 and the Japanese Patent Unexamined Application No. H8-275924.)
FIG. 61 is a diagram to illustrate the principle whereby temperatures of an eardrum are measured with a conventional ear type thermometer. In FIG. 61, the reference numeral 211 is an optical vision of the ear type thermometer, reference numeral 212 is an external auditory miatus, reference numeral 213 is the eardrum and reference numeral 214 is a probe acting as an inlet for infrared rays to reach the ear type thermometer.
With the foregoing ear type thermometer, by narrowing down the optical vision 211 for receiving infrared rays, only the infrared rays radiated from a minute area on the ear hole surface formed of the external auditory miatus 212 and eardrum 213 are captured to allow the temperature of the specific area to be measured and also to allow the temperatures at a plurality of positions on the eardrum surface to be measured while changing the direction of the opptical vision 211 by altering the direction of the probe 214 within the external auditory miatus 212, thereby treating the highest temperature obtained from above measurements as the temperature of the eardrum 213.
As the flow chart in FIG. 62 shows, the method for determining the highest value in temperatures measured comprises an infrared measurement process whereby infrared rays radiated from a spot captured in the optical vision 211 are measured and a computation process, whereby the temperature of the foregoing spot is derived by calculation according to the measured value of the infrared rays and the highest value in temperature that has been obtained by calculation by that time is updated, wherein these two processes are repeated.
As referred to in the Japanese Patent Unexamined Application No. H6-285028, it is conceivable theoretically to utilize a special-purpose table during the foregoing computation process, the special-purpose table being intended for deriving a body temperature from the measured value of infrared rays. However, the table of that kind tends to become enormous and, therefore, as described in the Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication No. H6-63851, a computation formula as expressed below is used.                     T        =                                            T              a              4                        +                                          V                s                                            f                ⁡                                  (                                      T                    a                                    )                                                              4                                    (        1        )            
where T is a body temperature of the eardrum expressed in kelvins (K), Ta is an ambient temperature in kelvins (K), in which the ear type thermometer is used, and Vs is an output voltage of the infrared sensor.
Here, f(Ta) is a correcting term corresponding to the temperature characteristics of the infrared sensor and it is known that this can be expressed in practice by a second order polynomial expression as follows:
f(Ta)=Axc3x97Ta2+Bxc3x97Ta+Cxe2x80x83xe2x80x83(2)
where A, B and C are constants.
Depending on the situations where the body temperature at the eardrum is higher than the ambient temperature and vice versa, Vs may be a positive value or a negative value. Usually, the sign of Vs is made positive when the body temperature at the eardrum is higher than the ambient temperature and made negative when the body temperature at the eardrum is lower than the ambient temperature. At this time, f(Ta) becomes always a positive value regardless of the value of Ta. In the vicinity of a room temperature, a variation of f(Ta) per the change of 1xc2x0 C. in the ambient temperature Ta, namely,                                           f            ⁡                          (                                                T                  a                                +                1                            )                                -                      f            ⁡                          (                              T                a                            )                                                f          ⁡                      (                          T              a                        )                                              (        3        )            
is about 0.2%.
Recently, more and more women go into the workaday world and there are many women who leave their children at a day-care facility and work at office or factory. For a working woman, it is important to know when to give birth to a baby because it is closely related to the schedules of her work, her putting out a baby to nurse after the baby is born, her doing things while she is pregnant and the like. Even for house wives, it is desirable to plan ahead well for delivery in consideration of a delicate relation between a seasons and physical conditions of theirs.
As a simple means to satisfy the foregoing needs, there is a thermometer for women with a function allowing a woman to know the date when her baby is due in advance by entering necessary data. More specifically this thermometer for women has the function of determining whether a woman in question is pregnant or not by having a menstruation start date and a basal body temperature entered manually or automatically and notifying an expected delivery date. When this thermometer for women is used, the user is allowed to know the expected delivery date before she is informed of the expected delivery date at hospital.
Furthermore, there once existed a thermometer for women to predict and notify a start date of the next menstruation obtained by adding an average number of days in a menstrual period to the most recent menstruation start date, the number of days in each respective menstrual period being derived from the time interval between the menstruation start dates entered into a menstruation start date entering means. There also existed a thermometer for women to predict and notify a start date of the next menstruation obtained by adding 12 days (the 14th day counted from the first day of a high temperature range) to the date at the time when shifting from a low temperature range to a high temperature range is confirmed to have taken place, (the foregoing time corresponding to the time when the basal body temperature determined as being in the high temperature range continues for three days). (Refer to the Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication No. S 62-183807.) The magnitude of a tolerance on the measurement value of an ear type thermometer and how quickly the body temperature has to be measured by the ear type thermometer are determined according to the application purpose of the ear type thermometer.
A thermometer for measuring body temperatures in such a short time as a few seconds or so with a rated accuracy of about xc2x10.1xc2x0C. is already available in the market as a radiation thermometer as it is commonly called. Suppose a situation where such an ear type thermometer is used in measuring body temperatures of babies and infants at the time when they are sick and feverish. A tolerance on the temperature measurement value of xc2x10.1xc2x0 C. is good enough and, in addition, the measurement of body temperatures being finished in such a short time as a few seconds is a great benefit to babies and infants who are not likely to stay quiet. On the other hand, when it comes to using the ear type thermometer as an ear type thermometer for women to measure women""s basal body temperatures, it is more important for the thermometer to reduce the tolerance on the temperature measurement value to the limit established by an Act on Metric, i.e., xc2x10.05xc2x0 C. at the maximum, for example, even if the time required for temperature measurement may increase by an order of magnitude.
Thus, when the ear type thermometer is used as an ear type thermometer for women, the extent of tolerance on the temperature measurement value and the length of time allowable for temperature measurement vary.
However, with the conventional ear type thermometer, a temperature measurement has been carried out with a given constant tolerance imposed on the measurement value and a given constant time spent in the temperature measurement regardless of the user""s wish about tolerance on the measurement value and the time period to be spent in temperature measurement.
Furthermore, in consideration of a body temperature determination procedure whereby temperatures are measured at a plurality of spots on the ear hole surface formed of an external auditory miatus and an eardrum and the fact that the highest value in the temperature measurement is taken as the temperature of the eardrum, suppose a situation where an ear type thermometer is put to use actually. In order to measure the temperature of the eardrum accurately, the direction of a probe has to be changed to some extent and the optical vision of the probe needs to be momentarily headed exactly in the direction of the eardrum. In addition, it is required of the probe not to change its direction too much during respective periods of body temperature measurement, thereby allowing an almost constant amount of infrared rays to enter into the probe.
As the method to satisfy both conditions of above is easily thought of a method for urging the user to change the probe direction by generating a signal such as sounding a buzzer and the like every time when the respective temperature measurements are finished while keeping the probe in a standstill during each respective body temperature measurement period, for example.
If ease of handling on the part of the user is taken into consideration, however, the utmost of what is required by the user in using an ear type thermometer is preferably something like rotating the probe round and round continuously in the external auditory miatus without being bothered with the timing in motion of the ear type thermometer.
On an assumption that the foregoing handling would take place, a series of processes from an infrared measurement process to a computing process are required to be finished in the shortest possible time. The reason is that, as the time of the foregoing processes is extended, the distance for the optical vision of an ear type thermometer to travel during the time of above becomes longer, thereby creating a greater possibility for the optical vision to end up with hitting other areas than the eardrum at the end of the travel notwithstanding hitting just the eardrum in the beginning. In other words, on an assumption that the user would handle the ear type thermometer in this manner, unless the time required to perform the series of processes is made as short as possible, the essential point of the technology featuring a selection of the highest value among a plurality of measurement values in body temperature is in danger of negation of the effectiveness thereof.
The ear type thermometers so far proposed, however, present the problem of an unnecessarily long period for a computing process since a body temperature itself is derived by calculation in the computing process every time when an infrared measurement is carried out.
More specifically, the computation of the computation formula (1) involves a biquadratic root calculation including mathematical computations to require a long computation time in comparison with the four fundamental operations of arithmetic, resulting in a long time needed in the computing process.
A thermister is usually used in measuring the ambient temperature Ta and the ambient temperature Ta in kelvins (K) is derived by calculation from thermister resistance Rth as follows:                               T          a                =                  1                                                    log                ⁡                                  (                                                            R                      th                                                              R                      0                                                        )                                            B                        +                          1                              T                0                                                                        (        4        )            
where B, Ro and To are constants determined according to the physical properties of the thermistor.
However, in deriving by calculation the ambient temperature Ta as above, complex mathematical computations of a logarithmic calculation are involved, thereby ending up with requiring a much longer time in the computing process.
In order for these mathematical computations to be performed at a high speed, the use of hardware having a high speed computation processing capability such as a digital signal processor and the like is possible, but in that case the power consumption of an ear type thermometer that is assumed to be battery operated is inadvertently increased, resulting in creating another problem.
In addition, an ear type thermometer of the conventional structure uses a probe of a given unified size, thereby presenting a problem of an inability to perform a not necessarily accurate measurement of body temperatures.
More specifically, the size of an external auditory miatus is different between adult and child and between male and female. Further, the way a curvature of an external auditory miatus is formed differs from person to person. Therefore, when a probe of a unified outline dimension is used by a variety of people, the sense of fitting differs between individuals, resulting in a different insertion position of the probe from time to time in use and in degraded reliability of measurement values. Another problem is that a mother sets the probe by insertion in an ear hole of children and infants when an ear type thermometer is used to measure body temperatures, for example, but the mother can not figure out how deep the probe is inserted in the ear hole.
When a measurement is carried out correctly, an eardrum temperature reflects a truer body temperature in comparison with the body temperatures measured under a tongue or an armpit that is exposed to outside air at the time of temperature measurement. However, the configurations of an external auditory miatus of the human body are greatly different from person to person in diameter and straightness. Therefore, when the probe of an ear type thermometer is not fitting well with the external auditory miatus, the vision of the probe has a great difficulty in hitting the eardrum just by having the probe inserted into the ear hole, resulting in measurement of the temperature of the external auditory miatus, which is lower than the eardrum temperature, and in a failure in measuring correctly the eardrum temperature. When the temperature of the external auditory miatus is measured, suppose the room temperature happens to be low. Then, the external auditory miatus is cooled by outside air or by the inserted probe of a low temperature. As a result, the temperature picked up by the probe becomes lower than the correct temperature due to the adverse effect of low room temperature and the repeatability of the temperature measurement is degraded. A conventional ear type thermometer is just provided with a plurality of probes and the user only selects one of the probes according to her own judgement about probe selection, relying on her sense of fitting and the like. Therefore, there has not been any assurance that the probe selected by the user allows a correct measurement of eardrum temperatures to be performed.
Further, a conventional thermometer for women is just intended for enabling the expected delivery date to be found out after pregnancy, thereby presenting a problem of insufficient functions made available for a woman who desires to have a planned delivery.
Furthermore, it is important for a woman to know correctly and beforehand about future menstruation start dates in order to get prepared in advance and to plan ahead on the courses of action that follow.
However, women""s physiological conditions are delicate and even those women who have fairly stable regular menstrual periods tend to develop irregular periods caused easily by a stress and the like, thereby causing the number of days in a menstrual period to be increased or decreased. Particularly, the women in modern times are increasingly thrown into a situation where they suffer from stresses and are likely to develop irregular menstrual periods frequently.
In order to cope with such irregular periods, the conventional thermometer for women designed for just taking an averaged out measurement value does not serve the purpose of predicting accurately the start date of next menstruation since even a woman having a rather stable number of days in a menstrual period may end up developing an irregular average number of days due to the existence of a few of the irregular periods, resulting in degradation of accuracy in the prediction on the start date of next menstruation.
Furthermore, there once existed a thermometer for women to predict and notify a start date of the next menstruation obtained by adding an average number of days in a menstrual period to the most recent menstruation start date, the number of days in each respective menstrual period being derived from the time interval between the menstruation start dates entered into a menstruation start date entering means. There also existed a thermometer for women to predict and notify a start date of the next menstruation obtained by adding 12 days (the 14th day counted from the first day of a high temperature range) to the date at the time when shifting from a low temperature range to a high temperature range is confirmed to have taken place, (the foregoing time corresponding to the time when the basal body temperature determined as being in the high temperature range continues for three days). (Refer to the Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication No. S 62-183807.)
However, when irregular periods are developed, it is said that only the number of days in the low temperature range varies and the number of days in the high temperature range remains almost constant and, therefore, with the thermometer for women whereby prediction and notification are given about the start date of next menstruation derived by adding 12 days to the date when shifting from the foregoing low temperature range to high temperature range was confirmed to have taken place, the influence of irregular periods developed is not so great as the influence to the thermometer for women whereby prediction and notification are given about the start date of next menstruation derived by simply adding the average number of days in a menstrual period to the most recent start date of menstruation, and yet it is impossible to cope with individual differences since the number of days in the high temperature range is fixed to 14 days. The number of days in the high temperature range extending over 14 days is considered as the norm but in actuality it ranges generally from 12 days to 16 days with 14 days serving as the median number of days. With the youth and women in menopause, their physiological functions are not stable, resulting in the number days in the high temperature range somewhat more or less than the norm. Due to an inability to cope with such individual differences, the accuracy in predictions tends to be degraded after all.
The present invention deals with the problems presented by conventional thermometers for women and aims at realizing an ear type thermometer for women whereby the accuracy in predicting a future start date of menstruation is enhanced.
In order to solve the foregoing problems, an ear type thermometer for women has a functional structure comprising the elements of enabling the extent of a tolerance of calculated eardrum temperature to be instructed; having the time spent on infrared measurement changed according to the tolerance instructed; performing infrared measurement according to a method whereby the extent of tolerance contained in an infrared measurement value is changed in accordance to the time spent on the infrared measurement; and deriving by calculation an eardrum temperature from the infrared measurement value.
According to this invention, the time spent on the infrared measurement is changed on the basis of an instructed tolerance, thereby allowing the eardrum temperature.measurement to be carried out within an appropriate time corresponding to the tolerance.
Also, the present invention solves the foregoing problems and makes it possible for the highest value in body temperatures to be found without relying on a large table of data and hardware for a high speed computation process. In a computation processing step after each respective infrared measurement process, a method of deriving by calculation a body temperature itself is replaced by a method of deriving by calculation a functional value which requires a smaller amount of computation than deriving body temperatures by calculation and also has a relationship of a simple function with body temperatures, thereby deriving by calculation the highest value in body temperature by using an infrared measurement value selected on the basis of the magnitude of the foregoing functional value. According to the present invention, a high and low relation of respective body temperatures derived by calculation from each respective infrared measurement value is analyzed according to a large and small relation of a cluster of functional values derived by calculation with a smaller computation amount spent than deriving body temperatures by calculation instead of deriving by calculation each respective body temperature. Thus, an infrared measurement value, which makes the result of deriving the body temperatures by calculation as the largest value, is selected and the process of deriving by calculation is just to be applied to a body temperature corresponding to the foregoing infrared measurement value, thereby leading to a reduction in the amount of computation itself of the computation process after each respective infrared measurement step and allowing the time required of the computation process to be made shorter.
In addition, in order to realize an ear type thermometer for women whereby an accurate measurement can be carried out, the present invention provides the probe attached to the ear type thermometer for women with an additional auxiliary probe that is designed to fit a specific user exclusively.
Further, the present invention discloses an ear type thermometer for women, comprising:
an infrared ray measuring means to measure a body temperature in an ear hole;
a plurality of interchangeable probes to be inserted in the ear hole for guiding infrared rays radiated from a human body to the infrared ray measuring means;
a probe adaptability determining means, which comprises: and
a notifying means,
wherein the probe adaptability determining means comprises:
a body temperature comparing means to make a comparison between the maximum value or the mean value of body temperatures in the ear hole measured the predetermined number of measurement times with a probe selected out of a plurality of the foregoing probes and the maximum values or the mean values of body temperatures in the ear hole derived in the same manner as above with other respective probes; and
a body temperature variation determining means to determine the extent in variation of body temperatures in the ear hole measured a predetermined number of measurement times with a plurality of the foregoing probes, and,
wherein the adaptability of each respective probe is determined from the outcome of at least the body temperature determining means and body temperature variation determining means and so notified, thereby making the ear type thermometer for women allow the user to select easily a probe whereby a correct measurement of an eardrum temperature can be carried out in accordance to the user""s individual differences in external auditory miatus.
Also, the present invention proposes an ear type thermometer for women that has the configuration of a probe devised to realize a reduction in its contact area with the external auditory miatus, thereby allowing an accurate body temperature to be measured.
Additionally, an ear type thermometer for women of the present invention comprises:
a room temperature measuring means to perform a room temperature measurement;
an infrared ray measuring means for performing a body temperature measurement in the ear hole;
a continuous measurement times determining means to find out the continuous measurement times in one round of measurement in accordance with the room temperature measured by the room temperature measuring means; and
a notifying means to send information on the number of continuous measurement times determined by the continuous measurement times determining means, thereby performing the measurements until stabilized repeatability corresponding to the room temperature is insured so as to realize the ear type thermometer for women whereby an adverse effect on the measured values at low temperatures is reduced as much as possible and also a change in the direction of the probe is handled properly when the probe is not aligned in the direction of an eardrum.
The present invention also proposes an ear type thermometer for women provided with a function of allowing the user to be assisted in making a planned delivery by noting via a controlling.means an ovulation date that is closest to the date derived by subtracting the normal number of days of pregnancy from the desired delivery date entered into a desired delivery date entering means.
In addition, an ear type thermometer for women according to the present invention comprises:
an ear type body temperature measurement unit to measure a basal body temperature;
a menstruation start date entering means to enter the first day of each respective menstrual period;
a storing means to store the basal body temperatures measured in the body temperature measurement unit, the menstruation start dates entered by the menstruation start date entering means and the like; and
a menstruation start date predicting means with a calendar function to predict a future menstruation start date on the basis of the data stored in the storing means, the menstruation start date predicting means being structured in such a way that:
a time period between the menstruation start dates stored in the storing means is taken as the number of days in a menstrual period corresponding to each respective menstrual period;
an average number of days in a valid menstrual period is derived by calculation for the valid menstrual period derived by eliminating menstrual periods, the number of days in each of which has a difference from the average number of days in a menstrual period exceeding a predetermined number of days, and also by eliminating menstrual periods, in which the difference between an average body temperature in the high temperature range and an average body temperature in the low temperature rang within each respective menstrual period does not exceed a predetermined value; and
the start date of menstruation at the nth period in future is predicted as (the most recent start date of menstruation+nxc3x97the average number of days in a valid menstrual period), thereby eliminating irregular menstrual periods to enhance the accuracy of prediction future menstruation start dates.
An ear type thermometer for women in a first mode of the present invention is an ear type thermometer for women whereby an eardrum temperature is derived by calculation based on the measurement value of infrared rays radiated from an object to be measured in temperature, i.e., an eardrum and the amount of time spent on the infrared measurement is changed according to the extent of tolerance of the eardrum temperature to be obtained. More specifically, the temperature measurement system is configured so as to carry out an infrared measurement by a method of changing the magnitude of errors contained in measurement values in accordance with the time spent on the measurement.
In other words, it becomes possible for the measurement of an eardrum temperature to be performed in an appropriate time period corresponding to a tolerance.
An ear type thermometer for women in a second mode of the present invention comprises the elements of:
an infrared ray measuring means to measure infrared rays radiated from an object to be measured in temperature, i.e., an eardrum by a method of changing the extent of tolerance in a measured value according to the time period spent on the measurement;
a tolerance instruction means to give an instruction on a tolerance for a temperature measurement result;
a measurement time determining means to determine an infrared measurement time for the infrared ray measuring means based on a tolerance given as an instruction by the tolerance instructing means; and
a body temperature calculating means to derive by calculation the temperature of an object to be measured in temperature, i.e., an eardrum by utilizing the result of infrared measurement performed in the infrared ray measuring means.
Therefore, it becomes possible for the temperature of an eardrum to be measured in an appropriate time period corresponding to a tolerance since the measurement time period of the infrared ray measuring means is determined by the measurement time determining means based on the tolerance instructed by the tolerance instructing means.
The result of temperature measurement includes the following two kinds of errors. One is a mechanical error that shows up with a certain steady tendency like being calculated always larger by a certain value and can be corrected by calibration and the other is a probability error, which varies in an irregular manner and the adverse effect of which can only be minimized by statistical processing. An ear type thermometer for women in a third mode of the present invention is structured to have a tolerance instructing means configured so as to give directions according to the aforementioned probability error.
By having probability errors only instructed by the tolerance instructing means, a measurement time determining means is allowed to eliminate the influence of mechanical errors and to determine a measurement time accurately.
An ear type thermometer in a fourth mode of the present invention is structured to have a measurement time determining means configured to determine a measurement time so as to have a simple decreasing relation against the tolerances instructed by a tolerance instructing means
Since the infrared measurement time determined by a measurement time determining means is: short when a tolerance is large and long when the tolerance is small, it becomes possible to measure temperatures by freely selecting between the priorities placed on a shorter measurement time and a more accurate measurement.
An ear type thermometer for women in a fifth mode of the present invention is structured to have an infrared ray measuring means provided with a plurality of filter circuits having, respectively, a time constant different from one another, thereby smoothing the infrared measurement values.
More specifically, the infrared measurement values are allowed to be smoothed over a time period corresponding to the time constant of each respective filter circuit and a filter circuit with a time constant varying according to a tolerance is selected for use, thereby enabling an appropriate temperature measurement to be carried out.
An ear type thermometer for women in a sixth mode of the present invention is structured to have a measurement time determining means to determine a measurement time so as to be inversely proportional to a value expressed by a quadratic equation of tolerance.
In other words, the infrared measurement time determined by the measurement time determining means vary inversely with the square of the tolerance and since the measurement time becomes shorter when the tolerance is large and conversely becomes longer when the tolerance is small, it becomes possible to measure temperatures by freely selecting between the priorities placed on a shorter measurement time and a more accurate measurement.
An ear type thermometer for women in a seventh mode of the present invention is structured to have a measurement time determining means to determine the infrared measurement time so as to be inversely proportional to the square of a tolerance.
When principal errors contained in the infrared measurement value obtained by one round of measurement are probability errors varying according to such a Gaussian distribution as applicable to thermal noises and the like, the SN ratio of a measurement value can be enhanced in proportionate to the square root of the number of measurement times, where the final measurement value is obtained as an average value of a plurality of measurements performed on infrared rays. Also, by devising the infrared measurement time of the measurement time determining means as varying inversely with the square of a tolerance, it is made possible for the magnitude of an error contained in the infrared measurement value to be proportionate to a specified tolerance.
With an ear type thermometer for women in an eighth mode of the present invention, an infrared measurement time determined by a measurement time determining means is determined so as to be inversely proportional to the square of a value derived by subtracting a predetermined value from a tolerance.
Further, when an error contained in an infrared measurement value obtained by one round of measurement includes a probability error varying according to such a Gaussian distribution as applicable to thermal noises and the like and a predetermined amount of mechanical errors the SN ratio of a measurement value can be enhanced in proportionate to the square root of a value derived by subtracting a predetermined numerical value corresponding to mechanical noises from the number of measurement times, where the final measurement value is obtained as an average value of a plurality of measurements performed on infrared rays, thereby making it possible for the magnitude of an error contained in the infrared measurement value to be proportionate to a specified tolerance.
With an ear type thermometer for women in a ninth mode of the present invention, a tolerance instructing means has a tolerance entering means whereby a tolerance is entered in a numerical value
Further, a measurement time determining means determines an infrared measurement time based on the numerical number entered from the tolerance entering means, thereby allowing the temperature of an eardrum to be measured in an appropriate time period corresponding to the tolerance entered.
With an ear type thermometer for women in a tenth mode of the present invention, a tolerance instructing means has a tolerance selecting means whereby one of a plurality of predetermined tolerances is selected.
Further, a measurement time determining means determines an infrared measurement time based on the tolerance selected by the tolerance selecting means, thereby allowing the temperature of an eardrum to be measured in an appropriate time period corresponding to the tolerance.
An ear type thermometer for women in an eleventh mode of the present invention is structured to have an infrared ray measuring means so as to start an infrared measurement when a tolerance is selected by a tolerance selecting means.
Upon selecting the tolerance through operation of the tolerance selecting means, the infrared measurement and a subsequent calculation of temperatures are carried out automatically, thereby allowing the temperature measurement to be performed promptly without taking the trouble of giving a separate instruction to start a temperature measurement.
An ear type thermometer for women in a twelfth mode of the present invention is structured to have a measurement instructing means to instruct a temperature measurement start so as to have the infrared measurement started when an infrared ray measuring means receives an instruction from the measurement instructing means.
Further, since the infrared measurement and the subsequent start of deriving temperatures by calculation are carried out according to an instruction from the measurement instructing means, after having set a tolerance by utilizing a tolerance instructing means in advance, the operation of the measurement instructing means is repeated a few times, thereby allowing the temperatures of a plurality of eardrums to be measured with the same tolerance in succession without resetting the tolerance many times.
An ear type thermometer for women in a thirteenth mode of the present invention has a human body as the object to be measured in temperature and has a tolerance selecting means provided with a thermometer function selecting means whereby a selection is made between the use of the ear type thermometer for women as a thermometer for women and the use as a general purpose thermometer requiring a less stringent tolerance than the thermometer for women.
Further, a tolerance is selected by the tolerance selecting means based on the application of the ear type thermometer for women as a thermometer for women or a general purpose thermometer selected by the thermometer function selecting means, thereby allowing the body temperature measurement to be carried out with a measurement error and measurement time period corresponding to the purpose of application.
An ear type thermometer for women in a fourteenth mode of the present invention is structured to have a tolerance instructing means located so as to allow the user to perform the operation thereof whenever necessary.
Further, since a tolerance can be set at any time by operating the tolerance instructing means, a tolerance as required and a measurement time determined accordingly are allowed to be determined at the user""s own will.
An ear type thermometer for women in a fifteenth, mode of the present invention is structured to have a tolerance instructing means arranged to be operated at the maker side before shipment so that the user cannot operate the tolerance instructing means thereafter.
By operating the tolerance instructing means before shipment on the part of the company who produces the ear type thermometer for women, it becomes possible for a plurality of kinds of ear type thermometers for women having an error contained in a temperature measurement result and a time period required by temperature measurement, both of which differ from one thermometer to another, to be produced on the same production line of the same factory.
With an ear type thermometer for women in a sixteenth mode of the present invention, a measurement value of infrared rays radiated from an eardrum is treated as a variable and a functional value, which can be derived by calculation at a smaller amount of calculation than that of a body temperature and also belongs to a function in a simple functional relation with the body temperature, is derived by calculation. In other words, a functional value is derived by calculation against each respective measurement value obtained by carrying out a plurality of measurements performed on infrared rays and then a body temperature is derived by calculation with the use of an infrared measurement value selected based on the magnitude of each respective functional value.
According to the present mode, instead of deriving by calculation individual body temperatures themselves, a high and low relation of individual body temperatures derived by calculation from respective infrared measurement values is checked based on a large and small relation of a group of functional values derived with a smaller amount of calculation of body temperatures, and an infrared measurement value yielding the largest value as a result of deriving body temperatures by calculation is selected for deriving a particular body temperature by calculation against the infrared measurement value, thereby allowing the computation processing time after individual infrared measurement processes to be made shorter when compared with the case where body temperatures are derived by calculation each time.
An ear type thermometer for women in a seventeenth mode of the present invention comprises:
an infrared ray measuring means to measure infrared rays radiated from an eardrum;
a functional value calculating means to derive by calculation a functional value, which can be derived at a smaller amount of computation than deriving a body temperature with an infrared measurement value treated as a variable and also belongs to a function in a simple, functional relation with a body temperature, in accordance with each respective measurement value obtained by the infrared ray measuring means in carrying out a plurality of times of infrared measurement;
a functional value selecting means to select one functional value out of a group of functional values derived by calculation by the functional value calculating means based on a magnitude of each respective functional value; and
a body temperature calculating means to derive by calculation a body temperature by using an infrared measurement value corresponding to the functional value selected by the functional value selecting means.
More specifically, the infrared ray measuring means measures infrared rays radiated from an eardrum and the functional value calculating means derives by calculation a functional value with the infrared measurement value treated as a variable. At this time, the amount of calculation is smaller than deriving a body temperature by calculation. This function is in a simple functional relation with body temperatures. When the functional value calculating means derives a functional value by calculation, the infrared ray measuring means derives by calculation each respective measurement value obtained by performing a plurality of times in infrared measurement according to the functional value, the functional value selecting means selects an infrared measurement value yielding the largest value as the calculation result of body temperatures by checking a large and small relation of the functional values derived by calculation by the functional value calculating means and finally the body temperature calculating means derives body temperatures by calculation against only the infrared measurement values selected by the functional value selecting means. Thereby allowing the time required of the calculation process after the individual infrared measurement processes to be shorter than deriving by calculation body temperatures each time and checking a high and low relation for requiring the highest value.
In addition to what is described about the ear type thermometer in the seventeenth mode of the present invention, an ear type thermometer for women in an eighteenth mode of the present invention comprises the functions of:
deriving by calculation from the functional value calculating means a functional value of a function in a simple increasing relation with a body temperature; and selecting the largest functional value out of a group of functional values derived by calculation from the functional value calculating means via the functional value selecting means.
Further, since the largest functional value is selected from a group of the functional values derived by calculation from the functional value calculating means and body temperatures against the selected infrared measurement values only are derived by calculation by the body temperature calculating means, the time required by calculation processes after each respective infrared measurement process can be made shorter than the case where body temperatures are derived by calculation each time.
In addition to what is described about the ear type thermometer in the seventeenth mode of the present invention, an ear type thermometer for women in a nineteenth mode of the present invention comprises the functions of:
deriving by calculation from the functional value calculating means a functional value of a function in a simple decreasing relation with a body temperature; and
selecting the smallest functional value via the functional value selecting means out of a group of functional values derived by calculation from the functional value calculating means.
In the same manner as with the eighteenth mode, since body temperatures against the selected infrared measurement values only are derived by calculation by the body temperature calculating means, the time required by calculation processes after each respective infrared measurement process can be made shorter than the case where body temperatures are derived by calculation each time.
In addition to what is described about the ear type thermometer in the seventeenth mode of the present invention, an ear type thermometer for women in an twentieth mode of the present invention comprises a function of deriving by calculation body temperatures via the body temperature calculating means from functional values selected by the functional value selecting means.
Since body temperatures are directly derived by calculation via the body temperature calculating means from the functional values themselves selected by the functional value selecting means, body temperatures can be derived by calculation easily without taking the trouble of storing the infrared measurement values used in deriving by calculation the functional values via the functional value calculating means.
In addition to the invention in any one of the seventeenth and twentieth modes of the present invention, an ear type thermometer for women in a twenty first mode of the present invention is structured to make a measurement value from the infrared ray measuring means, as is, as a functional value by the functional value calculating means.
A Since the measurement value obtained from the infrared ray measuring means, as is, is made the functional value via the functional value calculating means, the time required in computations after each respective infrared measuring process can be shortened by the time required of the functional value calculating means to derive the functional values by calculation.
In addition to the invention in the seventeenth mode of the present invention, an ear type thermometer for women in a twenty second mode of the present invention is provided with a sensor temperature measuring means to measure an operating ambient temperature and structured to have a smaller number of measurement times performed on the operating ambient temperature than the number of the infrared measurement times performed by the infrared ray measuring means and also to derive by calculation via the body temperature calculating means a body temperature corrected.by using a temperature measured by the sensor temperature measuring means.
Since the number of temperature measurement times of the sensor temperature measuring means is smaller than the number of infrared measurement times, the time required of calculation processes after each respective infrared process can be made shorter than ever when compared with the case where a body temperature is derived by calculation with a correction applied thereto according to an ambient temperature measured by the sensor temperature measuring means every time an infrared measurement is carried out by the infrared ray measuring means.
In addition to the invention in the twenty second mode of the present invention, an ear type thermometer for women in a twenty third mode of the present invention is structured to include a process of measuring via the sensor temperature measuring means an operating ambient temperature only once every time a body temperature is derived by calculation from the body temperature calculating means.
Since the sensor temperature measuring means measures a temperature only once, a body temperature measurement can be finished in a shorter time period than the sensor temperature measuring means carries out a plurality of times in temperature measurement.
In addition to the seventeenth mode of the present invention or the eighteenth mode of the present invention, an ear type thermometer for women in a twenty fourth mode of the present invention is structured to include a process of deriving by calculation a value corresponding to the fourth power of a body temperature via the functional value calculating means.
Since the biquadratic root calculation required to be performed as the final step of deriving by calculation a body temperature from an infrared measurement value can be omitted at the time of deriving by calculation a functional value via the functional value calculating means, the time required of computations after each respective infrared measuring process is allowed to be made shorter.
In addition to the seventeenth mode of the present invention or the eighteenth mode of the present invention, an ear type thermometer for women in a twenty fifth mode of the present invention is structured to include a process of deriving by calculation a value corresponding to the square of a body temperature via the functional value calculating means.
Further, since the biquadratic root calculation that has to be performed at the last step of deriving by calculation a body temperature from an infrared measurement value is to be replaced by a square root calculation when deriving a functional value by calculation via the functional value calculating means, the time required of calculation processes performed for each respective infrared measurement value by the functional value calculating means can be shortened by the time required for one time of the square root calculation when two times of the square root calculation are needed to, perform the biquadratic root calculation.
An ear type thermometer for women in a twenty sixth mode of the present invention has a method of temperature measurement comprising the steps of:
converting infrared rays radiated from an eardrum to an electrical signal; obtaining an infrared measurement value by applying a first calculating method and also a second calculating method that requires a longer calculation time than the first calculating method and achieves a higher degree of accuracy than the first calculating method;
deriving by calculation a functional value, which can be derived by calculation with a smaller amount of calculation than deriving a body temperature by calculation and also belongs to a function in a simple functional relation with body temperatures, for each respective measurement value obtained by carrying out a plurality of times in infrared measurement according to the first calculation method by using the respective measurement values as variables; selecting one functional value out of the functional values derived by calculation based on the magnitude thereof; and
deriving by calculation a body temperature using an infrared measurement value obtained by applying the second calculating method to the foregoing electrical signal corresponding to the selected functional value. In other words, a large and small relation of each respective body temperature derived by calculation from the infrared measurement values is checked based on a large and small relation of a group of functional values derived by calculation by the first calculating method with a smaller amount of calculation than deriving by calculation a body temperature from each respective infrared measurement value, and an infrared measurement value that makes the calculating result of body temperatures as the largest value is selected and determined from the electrical signal of the infrared sensor corresponding thereto according to the second calculating method, thereby deriving by calculation a body temperature against the particular infrared measurement value only. At the time of deriving by calculation each respective functional value, the infrared measurement values obtainable with a short calculating time according to the first calculating method are used and at the time of deriving by calculation body temperatures, the infrared measurement values obtainable with a high degree of accuracy according to the second calculating method are used, thereby allowing a body temperature to be derived by calculation with a high degree of accuracy while the time required of computations after each respective infrared measurement process being kept short.
An ear type thermometer for women in a twenty seventh mode of the present invention comprises the elements of:
an infrared sensor to convert infrared rays radiated from an eardrum into an electrical signal;
a first infrared measurement value calculating means to take in the electrical signal from the infrared sensor and derive by calculation a measurement value of the infrared rays radiated from the eardrum;
a second infrared measurement value calculating means to derive by calculation a measurement value of the infrared rays by taking in the electrical signal from the infrared sensor and spending a longer calculating time than the first infrared measurement value calculating means with a higher degree of calculating accuracy than the first infrared measurement value calculating means;
a functional value calculating means to derive by calculation a functional value for each respective measurement value derived by calculation from the first infrared measurement value calculating means by carrying out a plurality of times in infrared measurement with the measurement values treated as variables, the functional value being allowed to be derived by calculation with a smaller amount of computation than deriving body temperatures by calculation and also of a function in a simple functional relation with body temperatures, and at the same time to derive by calculation a measurement value derived from the foregoing second infrared measurement value calculating means against the electrical signal of the infrared sensor used in deriving by calculation the foregoing measurement value in accordance to the functional value derived by calculation;
a functional value selecting means to select one functional value out of a group of functional values derived by calculation from the functional value calculating means based on the magnitude of each respective functional value; and
a body temperature calculating means to derive by calculation body temperatures according to measurement values derived from the second infrared measurement value calculating means corresponding to the functional values selected by the functional value selecting means, thereby allowing the body temperatures to be derived at a high degree of accuracy by calculation while keeping the time required of the functional value calculating means to carry out computations for each respective infrared measurement value short.
In addition to what is described about the ear type thermometer in the twenty seventh mode of the present invention, an ear type thermometer for women in a twenty eighth mode of the present invention comprises the functions of:
deriving by calculation from the functional value calculating means a functional value of a function in a simple increasing relation with a body temperature; and
selecting the largest functional value out of a group of functional values derived by calculation from the functional value calculating means via the functional value selecting means.
Further, the functional value calculating means derives by calculation a functional value, which can be derived by calculation with a smaller amount of computation than deriving a body temperature by calculation and also belongs to a function in a simple increasing relation with a body temperature, while treating an infrared measurement value as a variable, and the functional value selecting means selects the largest functional value out of a group of functional values derived by calculation via the functional value calculating means rather than selecting the highest value from each respective body temperature itself, thereby deriving by calculation a body temperature only against an output value of the second infrared measurement value calculating means corresponding to the selected infrared measurement value. As a result, the time required of the functional value calculating means to carry out computations for each respective infrared measurement value can be made short and also body temperatures can be derived by calculation with a higher degree of accuracy.
In addition to what is described about the ear type thermometer in the twenty seventh mode of the present invention, an ear type thermometer for women in a twenty ninth mode of the present invention comprises the functions of:
deriving by calculation from the functional value calculating means a functional value of a function in a simple decreasing relation with a body temperature; and
selecting the smallest functional value out of a group of functional values derived by calculation from the functional value calculating means via the functional value selecting means.
Further, the functional value calculating means derives by calculation a functional value, which can be derived by calculation with a smaller amount of calculation than deriving a body temperature by calculation and also belongs to a function in a simple decreasing relation with a body temperature, while treating an infrared measurement value as a variable, the functional value selecting means selects the smallest functional value out of a group of functional values and the body temperature calculating means derives by calculation a body temperature only against the output value of the second infrared measurement value calculating means corresponding to the selected infrared measurement value, thereby allowing body temperatures to be derived by calculation with a high degree of accuracy while the time required of the functional value calculating means to carry out computations for each respective infrared measurement value being made short.
In addition to whatever described in the twenty seventh or twenty ninth mode of the present invention, an ear type thermometer for women in a thirtieth mode of the present invention is structured to have a signal value storing means to store an electrical signal value obtained by the infrared sensor, wherein the second infrared measurement value calculating means derives by calculation an infrared measurement value corresponding to a functional value selected by the functional value selecting means by using the electrical signal value stored in the signal value storing means after the functional value is selected.
Further, since the second infrared measurement value is derived by calculation by using a signal value stored in the signal value storing means as a measurement value corresponding to a functional value after the functional value is selected by the functional value selecting means, the second infrared measurement value calculating means requiring a long calculating time needs to obtain only one measurement value corresponding to the functional value selected by the functional value selecting means, thereby allowing the total amount of time required of computations to obtain the second infrared measurement value to be made short.
In addition to whatever described in the twenty seventh or thirtieth mode of the present invention, an ear type thermometer for women in a thirty first mode of the present invention is structured to have the number of taking in times of the output signal of the infrared sensor necessary for the first infrared measurement calculating means to derive by calculation an infrared measurement value made smaller than the number of taking in the output signal of the infrared sensor necessary for the second infrared measurement calculating means to derive by calculation an infrared measurement value.
Since the number of taking in times of the electrical signal of the infrared sensor required of the first infrared measurement value calculating means to derive by calculation an infrared measurement value is smaller than the number of taking in times of the electrical signal of the infrared sensor required of the second infrared measurement value calculating means to derive by calculation an infrared measurement value, the calculation time of the first infrared measurement value calculating means is allowed to be made easily shorter than the calculation time of the second infrared measurement value calculating means.
In addition to whatever described in the twenty seventh or thirty first mode of the present invention, an ear type thermometer for women in a thirty second mode of the present invention is structured to use a measurement value of the first infrared measurement value calculating means, as is, as a functional value in the functional value calculating means.
In other words, since the functional value calculating means employs the measurement value obtained by the infrared ray measuring means, as is, as a functional value, the time required of computations after each respective infrared measurement process can be made further short by the time period required of the functional value calculating means to derive the functional value by calculation.
In addition to whatever described in the twenty: seventh or thirty second mode of the present invention, an ear type thermometer for women in a thirty third mode of the present invention is structured to have a sensor temperature measuring means to measure the operating ambient temperature of an ear type thermometer for women, thereby allowing the body temperature calculating means to derive by calculation a corrected body temperature with the use of a temperature measured by the sensor temperature measuring means.
Since the number of temperature measurement times performed by the sensor temperature measuring means is smaller than the number of infrared measurement times performed by the infrared ray measuring means, the time required of computations after each respective infrared measurement process is allowed to be made further short when compared with the case where a body temperature is corrected by the ambient temperature from the sensor temperature calculating means each time when the infrared measurement is carried out by the infrared ray measuring means.
In addition to what is described in the thirty third mode of the present invention, an ear type thermometer for women in a thirty fourth mode of the present invention is structured to carry out an operating ambient temperature measurement by the sensor temperature measuring means only once for one time of deriving a body temperature by calculation by the body temperature calculation means.
In other words, since the ambient temperature is measured only once by the sensor temperature measuring means, a body temperature measurement is allowed to be finished in a shorter time period in comparison with the case where a plurality of temperature measurement times are carried out by the sensor temperature measuring means.
An ear type thermometer for women in a thirty fifth mode of the present invention has an auxiliary probe to suit the user provided to a probe of the main body of ear type thermometer for women, thereby allowing the ear type thermometer for women to carry out an accurate temperature measurement.
An ear type thermometer for women in a thirty sixth mode of the present invention has a coupling means to fix the position of an auxiliary probe provided to a probe of the main body of ear type thermometer for women, thereby keeping the fixing position of the auxiliary probe invariant and allowing the ear type thermometer for women to carry out an accurate temperature measurement.
An ear type thermometer for women in a thirty seventh mode of the present invention has a plurality of grooves provided to a probe of an ear type thermometer for women and further has a coupling means to fix the position of an auxiliary probe, thereby keeping the position of the auxiliary probe fixed and allowing the ear type thermometer for women to carry out an accurate temperature measurement.
An ear type thermometer for women in a thirty eighth mode of the present invention has a probe provided with tick marks on the surface thereof so as to allow the depth of insertion of the probe in an ear hole to be checked from outside, thereby allowing the ear type thermometer for women to carry out an accurate temperature measurement.
An ear type thermometer for women in a thirty ninth mode of the present invention comprises the elements of:
an infrared ray measuring means to measure a body temperature in an ear hole;
a plurality of interchangeable probes, each being inserted in the ear hole and intended for guiding the infrared rays radiated from the human body to the infrared ray measuring means;
a probe adaptability determining means; and
a notifying means,
wherein the probe adaptability means comprises the elements of:
a body temperature comparing means to compare the maximum value or average value of body temperatures in the ear hole, which are obtained as a result of temperature measurement performed a predetermined number of times, the comparison being made between one probe of a plurality of the foregoing probes and another; and
a body temperature variation determining means to determine an extent of the variation in body temperatures in the ear hole obtained as a result of temperature measurement performed a predetermined number of times on a plurality of the foregoing probes, thereby determining a degree of the adaptability of a probe from the output of at least the body temperature comparing means and body temperature variation determining means and notifying the determined degree of the adaptability to the user so as to allow the user to select easily a probe that enables the eardrum temperature measurement to be carried out accurately in accordance to individual differences in an external auditory miatus.
With an ear type thermometer for women in a fortieth mode of the present invention, the foregoing probe adaptability determining means has a probe identifying means to identify automatically a probe of a plurality of the foregoing probes when the probe is attached to the infrared ray measuring means, and notifies the degree of adaptability of the probe identified automatically by the probe identifying means to the user, thereby allowing the user to select the most suitable probe with added easiness.
An ear type thermometer for women in a forty first mode of the present invention further comprises the elements of:
a room temperature measuring means to measure a room temperature; and
a room temperature storing means,
wherein the room temperature measuring means notifies the user that the probe""s adaptability is urged to be determined again by using the probe adaptability determining means when the room temperature turns out to be below a predetermined value for the first time after storing the temperature at the time of measurement performed by the infrared ray measuring means, thereby allowing the user to select the most suitable probe enabling a more accurate eardrum temperature measurement to be carried out even when the room temperature is low.
An ear type thermometer for women in a forty second mode of the present invention further has a clocking means, wherein the clocking means measures the lapse of time after determining the probe""s adaptability at the probe adaptability determining means and notifying the lapse of time to the user and, when the foregoing lapse of time passes a predetermined time, a notification is made to the effect that the probe""s adaptability is urged to be determined again by the use of the probe adaptability determining means, thereby allowing the user to select easily the most suitable probe to enable an eardrum temperature measurement to be carried out more accurately, also according to secular changes in the external auditory miatus.
An ear type thermometer for women in a forty third mode of the present invention further comprises the elements of:
an individuals switching means; and
an adaptability storing means,
wherein the probe adaptability determining means notifies the latest probe""s adaptability determined for each respective individual by using the individuals switching means and so notified, thereby allowing the user to find out quickly her own probe""s adaptability once the individuals switching means is adjusted to her own position, thereby allowing the user to select easily the most suitable probe to enable the eardrum temperature measurement to be carried out more accurately even by coping with the case where a particular thermometer is used by the members of a family jointly.
An ear type thermometer for women in a forty fourth mode of the present invention further comprises a menstruation start date entering means,
wherein, at the time when a menstruation start date is entered, a notification is given to the effect that the probe""s adaptability is urged to be determined again by the use of the probe adaptability determining means, thereby allowing the user to select easily the most suitable probe to enable a basal female body temperature measurement to be carried out correctly and with stability for each respective menstrual period.
An ear type thermometer for women in a forty fifth mode of the present invention, employs a probe having many holes to reduce the amount of heat dissipation 0from an ear hole when the probe is inserted in the ear hole, thereby allowing a body temperature to be measured accurately even in an environment of a low room temperature.
An ear type thermometer for women in a forty sixth mode of the present invention employs a probe with grooves to reduce the amount of heat dissipation from an ear hole when the probe is inserted in the ear hole, thereby allowing a body temperature to be measured accurately even in an environment of a low room temperature. An ear type thermometer for women in a forty seventh mode of the present invention employs a probe formed of only an outer framework for inserting the main body of the probe into an ear hole to reduce the amount of heat dissipation from the ear hole when the probe is inserted in the ear, thereby allowing a body temperature to be measured accurately even in an environment of a low room temperature.
An ear type thermometer for women in a forty eighth mode of the present invention employs a probe covered with a raising material, thereby preventing an ear hole from dissipating heat when the probe is inserted in the ear and allowing a body temperature to be measured accurately even in an environment of a low room temperature.
An ear type thermometer for women in a forty ninth mode of the present invention comprises the elements of:
a room temperature measuring means to measure a room temperature;
an infrared ray measuring means to measure body temperatures in an ear hole;
a continuous measurement times determining means to determine the number of continuous measurement times per a measurement in accordance with a room temperature measured, by the room temperature measuring means; and
a notifying means,
wherein the continuous measurement times determining means is to notify the number of continuous measurement times determined so as to prevent an adverse effect imposed on the measurement value under a low temperature as much as possible and also to cope with a change in direction when a probe is not aligned in the direction of an eardrum.
An ear type thermometer for women in a fiftieth mode of the present invention further comprises the elements of:
a storing means; and
a notifying means,
wherein the maximum value of the body temperatures in an ear hole measured during a period covering the continuous measurement times determined by the continuous measurement times determining means is stored in the storing means and the continuous measurement times and the maximum value in body temperatures are informed via the notifying means, thereby allowing the user to know easily a highly reliable measurement value.
An ear type thermometer for women in a fifty first mode of the present invention further comprises a clocking means,
wherein the continuous measurement times determining means determines again the number of continuous measurement times at a room temperature when the measurement time interval of body temperatures in an ear hole is stretched to exceed a predetermined time period and notifies the redetermined number of continuous measurement times, thereby allowing the change in room temperature, which occurs during the period when the measurement interval of body temperatures in the ear hole is stretched to exceed a predetermined time period, to be coped with.
An ear type thermometer for women in a fifty second mode of the present invention further comprises a measurement value variation determining means,
wherein the continuous measurement times determining means increases the number of continuous measurement times when a range of measurement value variations of body temperatures in an ear hole is found to be a predetermined value or more, thereby enhancing the reliability of measurement values.
With an ear type thermometer for women in a fifty third mode of the present invention, a continuous measurement times determining means notifies the user about the balance of the number of continuous measurement times every time the user stops temperature measurement, thereby creating awareness on the part of the user to obtain a highly reliable measurement value.
With an ear type thermometer for women in a fifty fourth mode of the present invention, a continuous measurement times determining means provides a notification of alarm when the user is about to end a measurement with the number of continuous measurement times not having reached a predetermined value, thereby creating awareness on the part of the user to obtain a highly reliable measurement value.
With an ear type thermometer for women in a fifty fifth mode of the present invention, a controlling means has the functions of:
predicting a future menstruation start date and a future ovulation date from the body temperature data and data on menstruation start dates that are stored in a storing means; and
notifying an ovulation date that is closest to the date derived by subtracting a normal period of pregnancy from the desired date of delivery entered in a desired delivery date entering means, thereby allowing a planned delivery to be facilitated.
With an ear type thermometer for women in a fifty sixth mode of the present invention, a controlling means has the function of notifying that, in the case where an ovulation date notified at the time when a desired delivery date is entered by a desired delivery date entering means, turns out to be different from the ovulation date predicted based on the data collected after the foregoing time, the ovulation date is different from prediction, thereby allowing the user to know a more accurate ovulation date corresponding to the desired delivery date and to facilitate a planned delivery.
With an ear type thermometer for women in a fifty seventh mode of the present invention, a controlling means has the function of notifying an applicable ovulation date or that the applicable ovulation date is included in a corresponding menstrual period in the case where the ovulation date notified falls in the period between the menstruation start date entered and the next menstruation start date at the time when the menstruation start date is entered by a menstruation start date entering means, thereby allowing the user to know on the first day of the menstrual period of the applicable ovulation date that she is already in the menstrual period of the applicable ovulation date and to exercise added care in keeping good physical conditions.
With an ear type thermometer for women in a fifty eighth mode of the present invention, a controlling means has the function of notifying an applicable ovulation date or that the applicable ovulation date is included in a corresponding menstrual period in the case where an ovulation date notified during the period between the latest menstruation start date and the next menstruation start date, thereby allowing the user to exercise added care in keeping good physical conditions during the menstrual period of the applicable ovulation date.
With an ear type thermometer for women in a fifty ninth mode of the present invention, a controlling means has the function of notifying that, when the date of a body temperature measurement carried out at a body temperature measurement unit falls within a predetermined number of days before and after the applicable ovulation date notified and also the body temperature of the temperature measurement date is the lowest in comparison with the body temperatures measured within the predetermined number of days before and after the applicable ovulation date already stored in a data storing means, there is a great possibility that the body temperature measurement date is the true applicable ovulation date, thereby allowing the user to know the applicable ovulation date more precisely.
With an ear type thermometer for women in a sixtieth mode of the present invention, a controlling means has the function of notifying an expected delivery date based on an assumption that the user is pregnant on the applicable ovulation date notified, thereby allowing the user to make fine adjustments of the desired delivery date by checking the difference between the expected delivery date and the desired delivery date.
With an ear type thermometer for women in a sixty first mode of the present invention, a controlling means has the function of notifying a miscarriage prone period, a secure period and a premature delivery prone period based on an assumption that the user is pregnant on the, applicable ovulation date notified, thereby allowing the user to plan on a delivery schedule that is the most suited to the activity timetable while in pregnancy by changing the desired delivery date in various ways and checking the expected delivery dates displayed in accordance with each respective desired delivery date.
An ear type thermometer for women in a sixty second mode of the present invention comprises the elements of:
an ear type body temperature measurement unit to measure basal body temperatures;
a menstruation start date entering means to enter the first day of each respective menstrual period;
a storing means to store the basal body temperatures measured at the body temperature measurement unit, the menstruation start dates entered at the menstruation start date entering means and the like; and
a menstruation start date predicting means provided with a calendar function to predict a future menstruation start date based on the data stored in the storing means,
wherein the menstruation start date predicting means is structured treating the time interval between the menstruation start dates stored in the storing means as the number of days in a menstrual period corresponding to each respective menstrual period, to derive by calculation an average number of days in valid menstrual periods eliminating both the menstrual periods, each of which has a predetermined number of days or more in the difference from the average number of days in a menstrual period, and each of which has the difference between the average body temperature in a high temperature range and the average body temperature in a low temperature range in each respective menstrual period, not exceeding a predetermined value, and to predict the menstruation start date at nth period in future as (the latest menstruation start date+nxc3x97the average number of days in valid menstrual periods), thus enhancing the accuracy in predicting the menstruation start date in future by eliminating irregular menstrual periods.
An ear type thermometer for women in a sixty third mode of the present invention is structured to have the foregoing menstruation start date predicting means so as to predict the menstruation start date in future when the number of valid menstruation periods accounts for a predetermined ratio or more of the number of all menstrual periods, thereby enhancing further the accuracy in predicting the menstruation start date in future.
An ear type thermometer for women in a sixty fourth mode of the present invention is structured to have the foregoing menstruation start date predicting means to make a modifying prediction by adopting a date as the next menstruation start date, the date being derived by adding the average number of days in a high temperature range calculated from the basal body temperature for each respective menstrual period as stored in the storing means to the date before the first day in a high temperature range at the time when the transition from the low temperature range to the high temperature range can be determined to have taken place, thus enhancing the accuracy in predicting the menstruation start date in future by eliminating the adverse effect due to variations in the low temperature range of the ongoing menstrual period and also coping with differences between individuals.
An ear type thermometer for women in a sixty fifth mode of the present invention comprises:
a body temperature difference calculating means to derive by calculation an average difference in body temperature between a menstruation start date and the day before the menstruation start date from the basal body temperature and menstruation start dates stored in the storing means, wherein the menstruation start date predicting means is structured so as to have a date predicted by correction as the next menstruation start date, the date being the day when the basal body temperature measured by the ear type body temperature measurement unit has a difference from the basal body temperature of the preceding day exceeding the difference in body temperature derived by calculation at the body temperature difference calculating means in a case where no menstruation dates are entered to the menstruation start date entering means even if the next menstruation date predicted is passed, i.e., a menstrual period has a large number of days in a menstrual period, thus allowing the accuracy in predicting the future menstruation start dates to be enhanced by coping with differences between individuals.
An ear type thermometer for women in a sixty sixth mode of the present invention comprises a notifying means,
wherein the notifying means is structured to notify a future menstruation start date every time when a menstruation start date is entered in the menstruation start date entering means or a prediction is made by correction at the menstruation start date predicting means, thereby always allowing the user to recognize the future menstruation dates with a high degree of accuracy in prediction.
An ear type thermometer for women in a sixty seventh mode of the present invention comprises a storing means restricting means,
wherein the storing means restricting means is structured so as to restrict the data used at the menstruation start date predicting means for predicting the future menstruation start dates to the data accumulated within a predetermined period from the present day, thus allowing the accuracy in predicting the future menstruation start dates to be enhanced by coping with the recent variations in menstrual period.